Ghost Files
by Alex Wilder
Summary: What if Victor Mancha met Alex Wilder? an AU fic
1. Chapter 1

I don't own runaways, and this will probably never happen. If you have kept up with the comics then you know there's no way this fits in to current continuity so this is a "What if" fic

* * *

"Dang, there's no good music on here", Victor said as he scoured through the frogs computer files. "I figured Chase would have downloaded this thing to capacity". It was late Tuesday evening, and every member of the runaways who couldn't just recharge their batteries was asleep, Victor learned this was peak time to mess around with the frog and learn all of its functions. Somewhere around midnight he had given up on looking for a radio tuner and had opted to just download some music. The frog was entirely unhelpful, twice telling him the current music files were password protected. "Who puts a password on music", victor thought. He had spent the better part of the evening trying to get into the one folder labeled simply "Benatar". The file was huge, and victor was pretty sure that Pat Benatar had not put out 40 gigs of music in her career. Victor's face glowed green from the screen he was using to pull up the music; there were actually a few different hardrives in the frog, rather than one huge central drive. He had checked everyone but this one and this was the first sign of anything resembling music. The file was proving stubborn, and he couldn't figure out the password, trying everything from "pride" to "Velociraptor". Nothing worked, so victor figured he'd interface directly with the computer. Opening his head like this always creeped him out though, but he continued to access his personal USB port. The back of his head butterflied out to reveal a USB connection similar to the one used on an IPod. Touching back there to connect it always felt gross for some reason. When he hooked up he selected the "access new device function", and then Victor Mancha found himself in cyberspace.

For those of you who don't travel to cyberspace frequently allow me to describe it for you. For Victor It was a lot like going to the library. Hardrives are really just huge filing systems and Victors programming processed it like a library, big stacks of "books" which contained programs and files. Traveling is a bit more difficult to describe, it's not as if Victor walked through this computer library, it was more like he thought about walking and then he was where he wanted to go. It's okay if that doesn't make sense, Victor doesn't really understand it either. The robot boy navigated his way to the appropriate folder, which was still locked for all intents and purposes. A big chain was wrapped around the box. As he attempted to open it the box prompted him to give the password. Still at a loss for what the password was, victor put this particular file down and attempted to find some ghost files, anything in this area of files that had been deleted. While it wasn't possible to access these files anymore, he could read the properties of the lost files, much like lost books that are still in the card catalogue. Most of the files were too vague to guess at a password, stuff like journal entry 5 and strategy A was the gist of it. But there was one file that said it all, RPG contacts. This file had to have been saved by Alex, the one runaway that Victor had never met, he'd been around for the whole resurrection of Alex's father though, not very fun. So going back to the box, with all the knowledge he had of Alex Wilder at his disposal, he attempted to open the folder.

10 minutes later…

"What the heck!" Victor exclaimed, "Why can't this kid just use his birthday like a normal person!" Victor didn't know a lot about Alex, so he had been trying unsuccessfully to enter variations of Geoffrey and Alex Wilder as the password. His last attempt had been Wilders birthday, which didn't work so he took some time to figure out what it could be. Vic knew Alex betrayed his friends; try traitor. Didn't work. Alex liked RPG's; try NOOB killer or something. None of Victor's gaming references worked. The only other thing Victor knew about Alex was that he had dressed up like Spiderman for Halloween once. So, ready to give up Victor entered Spiderman as the password. "Password Accepted" said the box. The box opened but it wasn't music files or a journal or any of that. It was a program, entitled "ghost". He decided to execute the program, and there before him stood Alex Wilder.


	2. Chapter 2

Alex Wilder looked around like a person who does not know where they are and is very intent on finding someone to ask. His eyes came to rest on another teenager, about his height and Latino in origin. His mouth began to form the words "Where am I", but he was interrupted.

"You're dead", blurted Victor, "I mean, you've been dead for like six months. Nico, Chase, Karolina and Gert told me you… died man, this isn't really you right?"

His words fell on deaf ears, as Alex had turned him out after the "You're dead" bit.

"Are you done ranting, or was there an actual question in there?" asked Alex, "how about you just tell me what happened, how did I die exactly".

Victor then began to explain as best he could the events of Wilder's last stand. How he had betrayed the runaways and been killed by the Gibborium after the Rite of Thunder. Victor told the story as if from a TV reporters view, trying to relay all the emotion of the original. His explanation of the heartbreak and betrayal caused by Alex's actions seemed oddly disconnected. When Victor finished he again questioned Alex.

"How the hell are you here?" Victor. His mind was crunching the numbers and without sufficient logic his robot brain was threatening to go in to a "0010110 paradox mode". As if sensing this Alex did his best to explain events as he knew them, the only way he knew how.

"As far as I can figure, before the Rite of Thunder, I saved my game", said Alex. Noticing Victor's blank stare, he tried to elaborate. "In any videogame, you want to save a lot to keep your progress; I can remember getting the Idea to sort of save myself in case anything went wrong. It was like the ultimate contingency plan, I figured out that with the steins technology I could save my consciousness as computer data. In retrospect it seems like I was really just afraid to die… what's with the look?"

Alex was referring to victors disbelieving stare, which blatantly said, "that story is crap and you know it". In fact, that's exactly what he said to Alex.

"That story is crap and you know it", said Victor, "There's no way you can just save someone's personality".

Alex grinned slightly, saying "you ride around with a girl who has a pet velociraptor from the future, an alien girl and another girl with a magic staff in her chest, who's to say that story isn't crap?"

Victor thought about this and had to admit, the kid had a point. Superheroes come back to life all the time and tomorrow Captain America could show up with ten other dead superheroes right behind him.

"so tell me your story", said Alex, "how'd you get hooked up with my old running buddies?"

"It's a long story" said victor.

"Aw hell, I'm dead anyway", said Alex, "I've got nothing but time"

So Victor began his story;

"Mi Madre, that's my mom, was apparently shacking up with Ultron at some point in time. I was the result of their experiments to create this sort of robot sleeper agent and "My Dad", wanted me to infiltrate the heroes and kill the avengers someday. It was kind of a scary thought to realize that all my interests and beliefs, even my belief in god could be… manufactured like that".

Here victor paused, as if coming to terms with this fact for the first time. He looked scared, and Alex could see the cogs turning in his head (excuse the pun). He knew exactly what he was thinking, because he was thinking it too.

Alex interrupted him saying, "I don't care what Ultron put into you, I see a person, that's all".

Victor brightened slightly at the comment and continued his story. "Well the runaways found me by accident after Gert came from the future then asked me to join up and I fought my dad and then your dad showed up and…"

Once again Alex interjected to stop Victor before he got to far, "My dad, showed up?" said Alex, I thought he died too?"

Victor smiled slightly. "I told you It's a long story", Victor replied.

The two boys, bonded by the insecurity in their existence, continued like that. Sharing stories of their friends, like two people who went to the same high school but never talked. In this way they became connected. They laughed about how Nico sometimes tried slip in some tongue when she kissed and how Chase once almost burned his hair off with the fistigons. They talked about their parents, and running away. They talked until it was early in the morning and victor was about to unplug himself. Before he left Alex asked him something.,

"Could you please not tell everyone about me, at least not yet" said Alex, "I don't know if I can face them, waking up like this, it's like I betrayed them all over again ya know? I'm not quite ready to deal with that"

Victor looked at him, his eyes searching, for any bit of lie in what Alex had said. He couldn't or maybe didn't want to find any and found himself saying "I understand completely".

"Thanks a lot man", said Alex, "Oh, and if you want to impress Nico make her some waffles with real blueberry, she can't resist".

Victor unplugged himself and went back up to the house to make some blueberry waffles, feeling that he had finally found someone who really understood him.

(Don't let the seemingly happy ending fool you this story is very much) to be continued…


	3. Chapter 3: Dang Blueberries!

"These waffles are delicious Victor!" exclaimed Nico "I absolutely love blueberry!" She and the other runaways were all savoring the robots culinary prowess (Xavin even got seconds) as they sat around the table for an old fashioned family breakfast.

"Human creativity ceases to amaze me", said Xavin, "I would have never thought to mix grain based sustenance and fruits", (heaven forbid a skrull should try pizza).

All the runaways were in agreement that the blueberry waffles were great… everyone except Chase who was suspiciously silent. He had stopped shoveling food in his mouth to realize something, and it was causing him a level of distress.

"How did you know", he started, "That Nico likes blueberry?"

Nico would usually scold Chase at this point, but his question was valid. Besides her mother (who knew her favorite foods as if by magic), she had only told one person about her affinity for blueberry waffles, and that person was dead. "Well?" asked Nico, "How did you know?"

Molly, oblivious to all the tension, continued eating, pausing briefly to ask for the syrup. "Here", Chase said as he gave her the bottle, "how about you go eat in the other room Mol".

"Great, more drama", said Molly, "If arsenic were here she'd say…"

"Mol", repeated Chase in a sterner tone. This was sufficient warning and molly left. All eyes returned to victor who was crunching the numbers between honesty and loyalty.

"I talked to Alex", he blurted out.

"How?" said Karolina. Victor then attempted to explain as best he could the events of the past few nights. Chase became more on edge finally interrupting Victor by yelling "AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US WHY!!!" Nico remained calm, prompting Chase to do the same and Victor was allowed to finish.

"He said he felt remorse for what had happened", said Victor, "he was afraid that you'd be angry…"

Victor was once again cut off by Chase who said, "well he was sure as hell right, I'm wiping the frogs memory right now".

"Wait Chase", said Karolina, "What if there are more Alex hard-drives lying around".

"Karolina is right", said Xavin, "we should interrogate this computer boy, does anyone speak binary?".

"I've got a better idea", said Chase, "since their such great buddies now, how about we just get Victor the tin-man to talk up Alex".

Victor seemed distraught, his artificial heart pumping at maximum empathy. "He's truly sorry", he pleaded, "can't you give him another chance?"

Chase looked like he was about to explode at that comment, but with a look Nico shut him up. In a very quiet and sincere voice she said, "I can't go through all that again Victor, I can't"

And so it was decided that Victor would plug into cyberspace one last time, in order to betray a traitor.


	4. Chapter 4: Triple Cross

"Come on terminator", says Chase, "I haven't got all day. Hook yourself up to the frog so I can wipe this bad boy".

"Chase…" started Victor.

"Oh don't tell me you feel sorry for Alex", said Chase, "The guy tried to kill me, that gets no second chances in my book"

"But… it's really not really the same Alex", said Victor, "its data from before he betra…"

"Don't care", said Chase, matter of factly. He held up the cord necessary for Victor to enter Cyberspace and wordlessly thrust it at him, and in equal silence Victor plugged in.

Instantly the physical world blinked out of existence, slowly being replaced by a vast land of rolling green hills. Victor was astounded by the change, this morning it had been little more than the bare bones necessary for memory storage. Alex had been redecorating.. Victor surveyed the grass and found that it lost the sense of reality when closely examined. The blades of grass were all too uniformly perfect. It only looked real when you saw the whole thing. The sky as well was too blue and the gradient from light to dark was set at a weird angle.

"Hey Vic!" yelled a figure on a nearby hill

Suddenly Alex appeared next to Victor, clearly excited to have someone to share his masterpiece with.

"Do you like it?" he asked. Victor nodded his nervousness simulator activating. He did not want to come clean and hoped to forestall any questioning.

"The grass was the hardest", Alex continued, "game designers must spend forever on this". Alex paused seeming to notice that Victor was not at ease. "Whats up", Alex asked.

"I… I told everyone that your were in here and Chase wants to purge your files", Victor said, "They want to know if there are any more copies of you before they do though, I'm sorry", Victor finished lamely.

"Oh", was all Alex seemed capable of saying.

"I tried to explain", Victor started to say, but Alex cut him off.

"It's okay", he said, "I knew this would happen. To answer your question, there aren't any other copies, there's only one thing besides the frog that can hold all the data without corrupting it".

"Are you okay with this?" asked Victor.

"No", said Alex, "But I don't have to be"

"What do you mean", said Victor.

Alex turned toward Victor and put a hand on his shoulder in a natural, even friendly way."I mean", said Alex "that you're my ticket out of here"

Cyberspace once again blinked out of existence to be replaced by the real world. Victor's eyes opened suddenly.

"So", asked Chase, "what did you find out"

The robot did not answer him, as he pulled the usb cord out from the back of his head.

"Well?" asked Chase, "Is the Alex on the frog the only one?"

"No, there's one more", the robot said slowly.

"Where?" asked Chase.

"You're talking to him", said Victor, and chase was thrown backwards by enough electricity to power a car battery.


	5. Chapter 5: Fun With Electricity

"Dios Mio! You killed him!"

Victor's consciousness was now little more than a tiny voice of protest in the back of Alex's mind. He was fighting with everything he had for control of his body, but it was useless. Alex Wilder had taken over his body and it was his voice that spoke through Victor's lips.

"Stop struggling", Alex said, "I've shut down all your motor and speech centers."

Alex looked at his new hands and body, smiling as he said, "I could get used to this."

He was interrupted as Nico and Karolina entered the frog.

"Victor, what's going on out here?" Nico asked, "I thought I heard chase yelling…"

Her sentence was cut short as she glanced down and saw Chase lying on the floor, his body slightly smoking. Her eyes returned to Victor whose hand was raised in a threatening manner.

"Drop the staff", he said, "and keep that bracelet where I can see it Karolina"

Nico slowly lowered the staff of one, laying it on the floor of the ship.

"Alex?" she said uncertainly.

"That's a big 10-4", Alex smirked, "now kick the staff over to me"

"That won't work anymore Alex", Nico said, "The staff only works for me now"

Alex hesitated for just a moment, long enough for Karolina to rip off her bracelet.

"Nico, down!" Karolina yelled, letting loose a wave of light which seemed to blind Alex.

Shielding his eyes Alex quickly used his freshly acquired powers of magnetism to rip open a hole in the roof of the frog. Focusing his electricity downwards he propelled himself outside.

Karolina looked over to Nico and asked "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, go after him!" Nico replied.

Karolina flew out of the newly created gape in the frog's ceiling as Nico reached for her staff. She then tried, unsuccessfully, to pick it up. The Staff of One would not budge, the static electricity sent through the floor held it neatly in place.

"Great", Nico said.

Chase suddenly gasped for air next to her, sending Nico sprawling back onto the floor.

"AAAAHH!" she cried.

She got up and went to his side to see if he was alright.

"Thank god your alive" she said, "I was sure he had killed you"

Chase smiled at that, saying "He never could get the hang of that"

His eyes moved to the ceiling, and he cursed silently. "I just had the Frogs ceiling reinforced", he said.

Nico rolled her eyes, astounded that Chase could be so stupid.

"If you hadn't noticed", she said, her voice dripping with annoyance, "Our old pal just went all Exorcist on Victor. We need a way to stop him".

"Let me think a minute", Chase mumbled.

* * *

Karolina flew out of the Frog to find that Alex was sprinting towards the road out in front of the Prides safe house. Several cars went zooming by and Karolina hurried to intercept him.

"No way are you involving civilians!" Karolina shouted.

She began hurling bursts of light energy at Victor as she flew over head. Alex easily side-stepped her attacks and began laughing.

"Didn't you ever play space invaders", he yelled over the sounds of her shots, "you don't shoot at where I am, you shoot at where I'm going".

His advice came too late as he reached the street and began to magnetize a passing car. Luckily, the driver had the sense enough to jump out before it was too late. Alex began molding the car into a box, which was just the right size for a 16 year old girl.

"What are you…" Karolina had time enough to say, before she found herself encased in a metal box, without even a hint of sunlight.

"No sunlight means no power", said Alex, "game over".

To be continued…

* * *

_Note: I took some liberties when explaining various characters powers, so here are some notes to help clear things up._

_1. Nico's staff has some kind a metal on it but it may or may not be magnetic. That's why I said it was statically charged rather than magnetized._

_2. Karolina's power does not go away in the absence of sunlight but it does become weaker, I figured it would be weak enough to encase her in a metal box without worrying about her light energy enabling her to escape._


	6. Chapter 6: Penultimatum

"You'll kill her!" Victor screamed, "Karolina could suffocate!"

His words of protest were little more than the whispers of a slowly dying conscious, which only caused Alex to smirk. Alex then turned toward the prides safe house walking with a casual determination.

Out loud he said, "I wonder how much you'll scream when I kill Molly"

At this Victor went on screaming, and Alex laughed, his steps slow and deliberate.

* * *

Karolina for her part was cramped but unharmed. She could breathe regularly and puzzled over why Alex had not chosen to simply crush her along with the newly made box car. Her thoughts turned to Xavin and realization dawned on her, "I'm bait", she said.

* * *

Xavin and Molly were currently unaware of the situation happening outside and were trying unsuccessfully to subdue Old Lace. The dinosaur had been freaking out since Chase had been electrocuted.

"Foul Beast!" said Xavin, "I order you to sit!"

Xavin tried forcing Old Lace into a sitting position while molly with her mutant strength, held the raptor in place.

"Maybe she has to go", said Molly.

"Go where?" asked Xavin.

At this Molly rolled her eyes, "I meant she might have to take a…"

Molly was interrupted as Alex burst through the front door. Old Lace became very still and then struggled against Molly to break free. Molly barely managed to hold on to her. Despite Old Lace's obvious discomfort, Xavin looked at Alex seeing only her comrade Victor.

"What is going on?" Xavin asked, "Where are Karolina and the others?"

"Well since his pet is still alive, I'm guessing Chase is unconscious, but Karolina's dead".

"What!?" said Xavin, letting go of Old Lace completely.

Molly almost let go as well, it was a shame she didn't.

"I said, she's dead", said Alex, "I just killed her"

He spoke coldly with a menace clearly chosen to enrage Xavin. When Skrulls get angry, they tended to act stupidly. Xavin paused for just a moment, and then lunged at Alex upon finding whatever proof she needed. The boy dodged, leaping into the kitchen. He grabbed a frying pan and hurled it at Xavin. The super Skrull in training put up a force field reflexively, which upon making contact with the pan caused electricity to surge through Xavin's body. She then passed out from the shock, Alex standing smugly over her body.

"Each of the fantastic four's powers are based on the 4 natural elements", said Alex, "Sue storm makes force fields by bending light with water".

As he spoke, molly still held Old Lace, in a state of abject terror ever since Xavin had lunged at what she still thought was Victor.

"I charged that frying pan with electricity before I threw it, and you, so blind with rage, couldn't think"

Alex then turned his attention toward Molly, who was paralyzed with fear.

"Don't worry Molly", said Alex, "This isn't really Victor, It's your old friend Alex, back from the dead."

The boy pointed his arm at Old Lace, and shot a blast of electricity at the metal loop that hung from the dinosaur's nostrils. This caused the loop to become magnetized, and Old Lace's head was pulled to the metal floor. Alex then slowly mad his way toward Molly, as Victor continued screaming as he did so. Molly had expended too much energy holding Old Lace, and the double edged sword of her incredible strength was taking its toll on her body. Slowly, like a dying soldier, Molly crumpled to the floor as she passed out from exhaustion.

"Please, don't do this", Victor pleaded, "You don't have to kill them, just run away, please don't hurt them anymore".

"I have to Vic", Alex whispered, "You just don't understand".

The boy knelt down to where Molly now lay unconscious, and brought his hand to her head as if to stroke her hair.

"Don't you touch her murderous psycho"

Chase had suddenly entered the front door with some fancy blinking tech piece, held tightly in his fist. Reaching over he pushed the sole button on the front.

"Hasta la Vista", Chase said.

At the press of the button, every light, game boy, television, refrigerator, curling iron, toaster, and every other electrical appliance in a 3 mile radius simultaneously shut down. The device was an EMP generator, an old Stein family secret. In about 1 hour, Victor would come back online, and hopefully Alex's files would be purged.

To be concluded…

_Author's note: Well, I took quite a few liberties with the fantastic 4, so let's forget about that alright? In actuality, Reed Richards is water and Sue's abilities are based on the air element, Johnny and Ben are obvious. In any case I decided to fudge the numbers because Reed is essentially rubber and electricity doesn't effect it. This new distribution of powers made more sense for the story so you'll just have to deal with it. Besides that, I still feel like the stuff with Molly was a bit too creepy, but I really wanted you (the reader) to get the sense that Alex was definitively evil, any thoughts?_


	7. Chapter 7: What happens after

Victor blinked.

"Am I dead?" he asked no one in particular.

"No, but you should be", Chase replied.

Victor was currently lying on a mesh cot, and his head was hooked up to some fancy computer.

"I see you noticed the cot", said Chase, "Thank Molly for that, I wanted to just lay you on the floor".

"What happened?" akded Victor, "Is everyone okay?"

"Oh yeah, Nico didn't even have to cut herself for a spell (this story is K+ afterall). I guess Alex couldn't remember how many volts it takes to stop a heart." Chase finished.

"How did you stop me, I mean him?" Victor said.

"EMP, my dad left it to me", Chase answered, "Then I hooked you up to the tech in the safe house and purged Alex's files from your system".

At this Victor looked over to the screen Chase had pulled up, which indicated the files most recently wiped from Victors on-board memory. Along with Alex's files, there was another entitled ; 9066.

"Whats that", asked Victor.

"That 9066 thing? I was hoping you could tell me" said Chase, "It looks like a hidden file that merged with Alex's while he was downloaded. The properties indicate it was originally installed in your hard drive when you were first created".

"it merged with Alex's files?" Victor asked.

"That's a pretty dumb question since I just said that", Chase replied with a hint of annoyance, "This file just popped up while I was deleting Alex's files. Anyway, the computer is still running diagnostics, so I'll need you to stay here and get some rest. I'm going upstairs to see if Xavin's woken up yet".

Chase turned to leave and as he was walking up the stairs he mumbled, "When that skrull wakes up it's gonna be worse than Gert on PMS".

Victor lay back down, and closed his eyes.

* * *

**Epilogue:**

Victor had a dream, or whatever the robot equivalent of a dream is. The point is he heard a message, and this is what it said;

"Vic, I'm sorry for all the melodrama, but I had to keep your concious mind occupied long enough to fully absorb the ultron spyware. If you ever became aware of what I was doing, the 9066 program would have gone self destruct.

P.S. stop being so trusting"

Maybe the message was the truth, and maybe it wasn't. Or maybe it was really just a dream.

Now a days, whenever Victor is scared or lonely, whenever he is figthing some great and terrible foe, or merely afraid about what the future holds, a voice, quiet but consistent, cheers him on. The voice offers words of comfort and encouragement, like the remembered words of a fallen friend, or the whispers of a ghost.

**Concluded**


End file.
